Experimental Physics

Catalog description

33-104 introduces students to the methods of experimental physics. The course emphasizes experimental practice and judgment: executing and documenting measurements, working safely with instrumentation, analyzing data with uncertainties (including error propagation and least-squares fitting), and interpreting results in light of limitations and modeling assumptions. Students develop scientific communication skills through structured laboratory notebooks and formal presentation formats (e.g., written reports and posters). Our set of experiments provides repeated practice with the experimental process while keeping the focus on transferable skills rather than specific topics.